SMU forward Delisha Wills (5) drives to the basket around University of Texas at Arlington’s Candice Champion in the Lady Mustangs’ first conference game at Moody Coliseum. The team lost to UTA 85-79 Friday night. (Lindsey Perkins)

The SMU women’s basketball team dropped their opening game of the season in an 85-79 loss to the University of Texas at Arlington on Friday night in Moody Coliseum.

With both the Mustangs and Mavericks coming off exhibition wins over the Houston Jaguars, the first game of the season saw UTA improve to 1-0, while SMU will hit the road this week at 0-1.

Despite four reigning Conference USA champions posting double digit scores, and a double-double by junior Delisha Wills, the Mustangs were unable to overcome a tie at the half for their first win of the season. Wills posted 19 points, tying her in second place with UTA’s Meghan Nelson for the game-high score. The forward from Mesquite, Texas also contributed a team-high ten rebounds. As a sophomore, Wills had five double-doubles after averaging 9.4 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.

SMU junior forward Brittany Gilliam added 12 points and nine rebounds, while junior guard Jillian Samuels went three for seven in three’s adding a total of 12 points. Sophomore guard LaShandra Hill added 13 points, six rebounds and a game-high four steals to the Mustang’s efforts against the Mavericks.

UTA’s Candice Champion controlled the board with a game-high 20 points and 10 rebounds, after shooting seven out of nine from the field.

Tied at 35 a piece at the half, SMU showed significantly better percentages than the Mavericks, hitting 56 percent of the field goals and 50 percent of their attempted three-pointers. The Mavs posted a 40 percent success rate from the field and hit 43 percent of their three’s in the first 20 minutes of play.

The Mustangs held the advantage through most of the first half, but UTA managed to pull ahead by one point with just under one minute remaining. Down 34-33 with just five seconds remaining, Hill drained a field goal to tie the game at the buzzer.

The Mavericks improved significantly in the second half, while the Mustangs struggled to get points on the board. Shooting only 28 percent in field goals and 11 percent in three’s, the Mustangs surrendered 28 rebounds in the second half alone.

The Mustangs gained the advantage in the opening minutes of the second half, but UTA took the final lead just three minutes in. With the Mavericks up by 18 points with six minutes remaining, the Mustangs managed to close the gap to within six points with just two seconds left, but could not pull off the win.

The overall record between the cross-town rivals now stands at 21-16 in favor of the Mavericks.

While the Mustangs defeated UTA in a 97-66 victory in Moody Coliseum last season and an at-home 67-64 win in 2006, a first season loss means nothing to the Mustangs overall record. Failing to win over season-opener Texas A&M last season, the Mustangs went on to win the Conference USA Championship Tournament as well as earn a first-round trip to the NCAA Tournament.

The Mustangs will hit the road this weekend to take on the 2-0 Arkansas Razorbacks on Friday followed by 3-1 Eastern Illinois on Nov. 24. SMU will be back in Moody on Nov. 28 to host 0-2 Sam Houston State.